Tuesday Training Tidbits
Big news of the day: Kevin Appier may have one of the shortest comeback attempts ever. The PI writes his first outing was awful. See if you wince along with me:
If the problem is simply that he’s going through the “dead arm” phase many pitchers encounter in the spring, he’s got a chance for a quick rebound.
“There’s a fair chance it’s dead-arm time,” he said. “If that’s the case, you should see an improvement real quick.
Not in this organization, you don’t. Also in that notebook: Johjima impresses. This is echoed First in the Times. Shocking, what with it being Spring Training and all.
Also from the PI: “Versatile Dobbs puts in extra work“. Versatile? How so?
Matt Lawton talks about his failed steroid test and desire to move on after serving his suspension. (Times)
In the PI, Jim Moore continues to fan a fake Carl Everett controversy advancing the line that the essential problem with Everett is that he’s got anti-gay, creationist views. No link.
Also, John Levesque, who we’ve lauded and lambasted here, has written his last sports column.
Good news on the PI page: 59% of readers want to see Lopez start at 2nd! Of course, this means that over 40% do not. Lame!
Dobbs’s versatility is obvious. He sucks in so many ways.
Dobbs can stand anywhere with a glove, which makes him versatile, because he owns a glove for every position except catcher. This does not make him capable of playing multiple positions.
Happy Birthday Bobby Madritsch!
To go with Levesque’s column, I refereed for a youth basketball program this year and it refreshed me as a sports fan. Instead of cynical, pay me now athletes I saw what makes sports great. There were players who stopped to help an oppenent who had fallen. There was a game that I worked where the opponents allowed and encouraged an autistic player to make baskets. There were parents who cheered whenever a basket was made… for either team. Teams got together and realized when members of their team had not scored and kept feeding them the ball until they did. Selfish players learned to pass and work as a team. The kids learned and most importantly they had fun. I am a better person for having been a part of it.
you forgot to mention that Levesque leaves the Seattle sports pages after his long and sterling career (what? only three years?!) with a column on “true winners” hmmm. “… traits we want to see in all our favorite sports figures. Traits such as compassion. Integrity. Nobility.Generosity. Ask the Seattle Mariners about such a person and you’ll be directed to Raul Ibanez.” 🙂
apparently, it is Dobby the Bench Elf day– besides Hickey saying he is bidding to join Willie & Morse in the versatilily corner of the clubhouse, Kirby Arnold says that he follows Beltre’s every move
Larry Stone (before he moves to the Cactus League) fills us in the the frightening new Cult of Grady
and finally, in the M’s Mailbag a fan writes: “Is there any chance that Michael Garciaparra will play shortstop? He seems pretty good and his name would bring more attention to the club.”
um, you mean such attention as “tell me again why the M’s drafted Michael Garciaparra?”
dagnabbit. that would be here for Stone’s column on Sizemore. Apparently they are very happy with him in Cleveland.
“Our market research this past year showed us that the female demographic grew about 200 percent for us last year, and we attribute a lot of that to Mr. Sizemore,” said Bob DiBiaso [Cleveland’s vice president of public relations]”
Doesn’t Compute?
Upwards Basketball? I refereed this year also. Incredible experince. I’m so grateful that I got to be a part of it.
Versatile in that The Dobber can prevent a ball from finding safe ground in the outfield grass in multiple ways: by pinch-hitting for an otherwise capable batter, and by sticking his head in the way of a screaming line drive. He’s still working on the one with the glove.
Re #8
Yup Upwards. Are you in Spokane? We probably know each other.
Yes, in Spokane. It’s likely we have crossed paths somewhere on the courts.
Actually, I think our kids might have been on the same team. I’m Kevin, Gaeb’s dad.
I’m going to miss Levesque. The head slap I gave myself every morning helped get me going.
It is actually “john” not “jim” levesque. I did not know three years could fly by so quickly. The only column I can recall is when he outed Slick Rick Neuheisel for lying because he overheard his loud ranting while in an airport.
Lopez has dropped in the polls somewhat…now only 57.5% of PI readers want him to start. Bloomie at 28.9%, Vina at 9.5%.
Do you think the 4.1% that don’t want Lopez, Bloomquist or Vina are holding out for Bret Boone or Michael Garciaparra?
I dunno about this dead arm stuff. I got pretty freaked out reading about Pirates spring training, where Kip Wells’s “dead arm” turned out to be a complete blockage of the axillary artery.
I felt sort of guilty, though, because Kip Wells was the only part of the Pirates rotation I wasn’t looking forward to seeing this year.
Off topic but cool – the O’Reilly Hacks series now has a Baseball Hacks title.
For those interested, The Giants just signed Winn to a three year contract. They have not yet released any details on the contract value. Any kind thoughts or prayers for it to be under 20 mil. would be greatly appreciated.
I can’t believe that Vina got that many votes.
That beard has hypnotic powers.
#15: Do you think the 4.1% that don’t want Lopez, Bloomquist or Vina are holding out for Bret Boone or Michael Garciaparra?
I think that the 4.1% think Boone is still starting.
Gillick was on KJR this midday and opined in hindsight that they should have traded ‘the other guy’ instead of Junior. They knew that Alex was unlikely to re-sign, they would have gotten something good for him and then Junior would have stayed because “he would have been a happy camper” as “there was some tension between Alex & Jr.”
Gillick said that Mike Ilitch pulled the Gonzo deal off the table in 2000 at the last minute, and that in 2001 they wanted to make a move but that there wasn’t much out there to go get in a trade — but that the money was there for a trade had they wanted to do something. He also said the decision not to interview Baker in 2002 was his — that with the team they had then he didn’t feel a veteran manager was the way to go, which is why they interviewed who they did, and then went with Melvin. He also said that he felt that Lou indeed left because of family issues. Oh, his visit allowed Softy to tell us that everything Gillick did here was “golden”, and that it was ok for Gillick to have messed up the minor league system because his job as GM is not to look to the future of the team, but to win now.
Winn’s Contract: 3 yrs 23.5 mil (SIGH)
Eavesdropping on Rick Neuheisel was early in Levesque’s sportswriting tenure; it sure got his name out there. IIRC, before that he was the TV critic for the P-I, except when the writers union went on strike. He took a temp job sorting mail for the USPS, which is the lasting memory I will always have of him.
“Dobby, the Bench Elf” – I love it!
give props to Deanna for that…
Levesque– seven years as the tv critic (with the 6 week hiatus in ’01), and then in 2003 he got the sports column, and then lucked into his eavesdropping notoriety